R2I - APPLIANCE SHOPPING

We had to buy the following appliances before our move to a rental appt and have it delivered there once we took possession of the rental appt. 
- Fridge
- ACs (3)
- Water Purifier
- Washer + Dryer
- Iron
- Microwave
- LED TV (we had one and wanted another one) + DVD player
- Toaster
- Grinder

Since we have to smash food for N, we had to buy a grinder the day after we landed in India. When we turn it on, it makes as much noise as a plane would when it is ready for takeoff. For the rest, we were told to go to a consolidated store like Girias or Pai International. They give a discount on the entire amount and the more you buy the better the discount. For fridge, we debated between side by side door models and top down door models. The 1st store we went to was Pai Intl. The salesperson was selling us all samsung stuff and pointing out the competitive advantage of samsung over LG. Most of the salespeople in India are not very knowledgable. They know answers to a few questions. You ask anything else and many don't even understand the question or the motivation behind it. Some do and they have no clue as to the answer. Usually there is some stud salesperson who can answer such questions. So very soon you get referred to him. Regarding washer and dryer, there are 3 types of washers in India
- One with a small dryer on the side. The capacity is generally very small. We did not look at such washers.
- Washer that washes and dries clothes 80%. The clothes are still fairly wet (not soaking wet) and need to be put in a drier or be hanged to dry.
- Washer that washes and dries clothes 99%. What that means is that the clothes are decently dry but cannot be worn right away. So they need to be put in a drier or be hanged to dry. 
Being used to huge washer and dryers in US, we definitely wanted a washer with big capacity and clothes that were bone dry without any extra effort (convenience over cost). The extra cost of the 3rd type of washers did not justify  the marginal extra convenience that it provided. Even the salesperson called them a "dead investment" since one had to buy a dryer anyway if one needed the clothes to come out bone dry. So we went ahead with the 2nd type of washer. 
Water in Bangalore is very hard and needs to be softened before it can be purified. There are only 2 water purifiers that work with hard water and we decided to go ahead with Kent. The model is very ugly looking with the internal filters and pipes encased in clear plastic. Wonder who wants to look at them. 
The second store that we went to was Girias and was a LG shop. He rubbished everything that the other salesperson had told us and touted LG over samsung. So now we were thoroughly confused. Speaking to friends we gathered that both the brands were good and there were some people that were samsung loyalists and others that swore by LG. After much deliberation we decided to go ahead with Samsung side by side door fridge, LED TV, DVDplayer and ACs, IFB (top end brand) washer, dryer and  microwave. This we realized was only half the job. The next part was scheduling the delivery of the appliances from the store and setting up time with people from the different companies to setup the appliances and verify that they work correctly. Since we had bought stuff from a single store, the 1st part entailed only 1 day delay. Then came the interesting part of getting the company people to plug in the appliances and give us a demo. People would say that they are very near our home (in morning) and not show up the entire day. Since we had as yet not moved to our rental place (we had just got possession and were setting up our stuff from seattle), we were not available the entire day. The moment we left the rental place to go to our service appt (in evening), people would call us and say that they can be there in 30 mins. This blatant lying continued for 3-4 days even with our diligent calls and reminders. Finally after a week or so all the appliances were setup and demoed to us. But of course things cannot be so smooth, right? After installing the ACs, we found that we were given different (cheaper) models than the ones we had asked for. The bill also had the cheaper model number. of course we had not thought of verifying the model numbers on the bill when we purchased the appliances. Secondly we were given only 2 ACs when we had asked for three. In the bill we were charged for only 2 as well. We asked he store for the 3rd AC and they gave the cheaper model as well. When the model discrepancy was noticed, the ACs were already installed. So getting the store to take them back was an ordeal. The salesperson accepted his mistake but would make different excuses so as not to give us the better models (saying they are not available, etc). Finally after 2 weeks of following up everyday we gave up and have accepted the cheaper models into our house  and family. The store had not charged us for the 3rd AC and don't seem inclined to do so. They figure it is cheaper than having to sell 3 opened ACs.
When the guy from Kent came to install the water filter, he did water hardness test and found that the water at our rental is especially hard and that would put too much strain on the filters. So on his recommendation we installed an external filter that removes some hardness and then flows the water to kent purifier. Even the washer needs to have a water softener for it to have a longer life. There is a lot of treatment that needs to be done on water before it can be safely consumed. After all this we found that people still hesitate to give Kent water to young kids. So we have 20L mineral water delivered to our house every week for consumption by M and N. It costs only Rs 25 and so I am not sure whether it is truly mineral water. However so far there have been no illness, so keeping our fingers crossed.....Our washer and dryer are in the utility room (kitchen balcony). However it has only a single plug point. So we had to alternate between the two for a few weeks while we were following up with the appt electrician to get another plug point. of course the follow up required daily reminders to the electrician, him getting 5A plug point (instead of 16A one), etc.